Show You Stars
by SuikoTorrent
Summary: Shin talks out loud, but Touma is more an actions-speak-louder kind of guy Touma/Shin


I'll Show you Stars

#46 - Star

Rating PG

Author's Notes: This is what I did instead of learning about Bacon's Rebellion. Also, I'm matching each story with a song. This fic's song is "Galileo" by Tingstad and Rumbel, which is nigh on impossible to find and is an m4p on my computer so I can't think of anywhere to upload it. Sad.

"…And that one is Cassiopeia. My favorite is Pegasus, but it's sometimes hard to pick out."

Touma shifted his head on the grass to follow Shin's pointing finger towards the constellation in question. Shin was babbling as if Touma didn't know a damn thing about space and the stars. He quirked a smile; sometimes the way Shin talked, it seemed like he didn't.

Shin let his head fall to the side, watching Touma watch the sky. "Which one do you like best?"

"Hmm?" Touma hummed absently.

Shin huffed. "You're not listening to me. Again."

He was. He really, really was. Touma chuckled. "I like Ursa Major."

That was one Shin hadn't mentioned and it suddenly hit him how stupid having this conversation with Tenkuu no Touma was. He blushed. "…Me too."

There was something in the abstract way Shin spoke that made Touma want to swallow his words. He should have said Orion. Or Pegasus. He liked Pegasus, too.

He rolled over on his stomach, back to the sky. "Keep talking," he commanded.

Shin blinked. "But you already know…"

"I know that. Tell me anyway." He didn't smile, but his eyes and voice were soft.

Shin was instantly gentled, his feathers smoothed. "Pegasus was born from the blood of the beheaded Gorgon Medusa, though some say he was the son of…"

And so on.

--

The best part about Mouri Shin, Touma decided, was how infuriatingly normal he was. He had a normal happy family, a normal school, normal hobbies- back home he even had normal friends. For Touma, whose life was decidedly abnormal, his life and character were all inadvertently fascinating. The way his eyes flashed when he got excited, his very neat, white teeth- probably a product of very normal braces – nipped at pink, normal lips. Even his hair was a shapeless, soft kind of everyday russet auburn. The few times he had been brave enough to play with it, Shin had smiled and made some offhand remark about how Touma should grow his own hair out a little and leave off the sweatband – that it made him look mature. No one had ever used that word to describe Touma before.

Sometime during this thought process Shin had stopped talking and sighed, rubbing his nose from where the grass made it itch. Touma's lips were dry.

"What's the matter?" He murmured. Shin gave him a weak little smile.

"Sometimes I get jealous, that's all."

That certainly hadn't been what Touma was expecting. He tried to find the words, but what he came up with was, "How come?"

Shin made the I'm-Shin-and-I'm-Concentrating face (at least that was what Touma had begun to refer to it as) and chewed his lip. "I don't regret having the relationship I have with the water. But there are times when I wish I could feel the strength of the Earth like Shuu, or the passion of fire like Ryo, or the beauty of space like you."

Touma turned this over in his head for a few minutes while they settled back into silence. Shin had almost fallen asleep when Touma ventured quietly: "…Do you want to?"

"Huh?" Shin asked, dazed.

Touma sat up, looking at him carefully. "Do you want to know what it's like? Being in space, I mean."

Shin smiled at him crookedly- as usual, not quite understanding everything going on in his genius friend's mind. "What are you getting at, Tou-chan?"

Touma ignored the nickname and stood up, brushing grass off of his pants. "Get up," he stated simply. Shin stared at him, but obeyed.

"Touma, if this is some kind of weird game you're playing to make fun of me for my rant about stars I don't think it's funny at all, and if you – TOUMA!" Shin's breath left him in a rush as Touma crushed him to his chest, forming his power sphere in an instant and skyrocketing them into the air. Shin clung desperately to Touma's waist as he watched the ground disappear way too rapidly to be normal. Soon he couldn't even see the mansion anymore; it had been replaced by rogue clouds and the Lite-Brite patterns of cities below. Touma didn't say anything since his voice would never register over the sound of wind rushing by. He simply kept his gaze trained upwards and Shin pressed close to his body.

Shin was paralyzed – both with fear and fascination. He had twisted handfuls of Touma's shirt in his fists and was not about to let go anytime soon. His palms were sweaty and his heart was beating erratically but he couldn't force himself to look away. When they finally slowed down and began to hover, the clouds were forming a soft carpet below them, and above – nothing but a wide-arcing spray of stars.

His eyes stung. "Touma," he said quietly. Touma nodded.

"I know."

Shin was used to his own power sphere being highly oxygenated and cool to keep his pressure stabilized underwater. Touma's was warm, but the air still came in as a regulated stream, making his pants flutter and snap against his legs and his hair toss in and out of his vision, which was blurring. "This…this is…" He wasn't daring enough to shy away from Touma, but rather held on to him like a life vest while looking out over Touma's shoulder at the sky around him. All around them, nothing but stars – twinkling, falling, burning, living, dying, like so many pinpoints of cold fire. It was unlike anything he had experienced before, and he could only imagine how powerful it must be to Touma.

He pulled back a little and stared at Touma incredulously, watching the stars reflecting in his eyes and wondering- did things like this even happen outside of the movies? Touma's serious face contemplated him for a moment, then leaned forward and pressed their lips softly together. Shin let out a small noise that was neither surprise nor discontent and relaxed his grip on Touma's shirt. With their hair whipping around them and the entire atmosphere oblivious to their presence they floated there, between worlds, for a time.

"I think…" Shin said softly, lips moving against Touma's neck and making him shiver, tightening his grasp on the older boy's waist, "I just learned something about you that no one else will ever understand. And I'm honored."

Touma smiled and rested his cheek on Shin's hair. "If you want, next time you can make the big bubble and we can go swimming."

Shin laughed, and thought that wasn't a bad idea at all.


End file.
